Canelo Alvarez outboxes Christian Mbilli to win WBC super middleweight title

RIYADH — The entrance stage was built to look like an Aztec temple, the kind you see at Teotihuacan, and Canelo Alvarez walked out of it to a video package on the big screens. Before that, Bruce Buffer announced the national anthems of Saudi Arabia, France and Mexico. By the time Alvarez reached the center of the ring, chants of his name filled the arena.

More than 12 rounds later, Alvarez had the WBC super middleweight title back. He beat Christian Mbilli by unanimous decision, with the judges scoring it 117-110, 116-111 and 115-112. Alvarez improved to 64-3-2 with 39 knockouts, and Mbilli suffered the first loss of his career, falling to 29-1-1. It was Alvarez’s first fight since losing to Terence Crawford more than 13 months ago.

Mbilli looked like the busier fighter early, pushing Alvarez toward the ropes and putting a lot of volume on him. But whenever Alvarez did punch, his shots were cleaner, more accurate and harder. I gave Mbilli rounds two through four for his volume, even while Alvarez was landing the better punches, and the pattern of the fight was already clear. Mbilli would unload a flurry and back away, and he refused to take the bait when Alvarez smiled and waved him toward the ropes.

Then Alvarez settled in. The fifth and sixth rounds were tight, and the seventh was his best. He landed a four-punch combination, then rocked Mbilli with a flurry off the ropes to get him off his body, and a right uppercut got Mbilli’s full attention. Mbilli smiled, but it looked like it hurt. From there, Alvarez counterpunched for round after round, doing just enough to win each one. It was the version of Alvarez that fans remember.

The eighth round also brought a turning point of another kind. The referee had warned Mbilli, but after Alvarez complained, he took a point away from Mbilli for punches thrown to the back and near the back of the head. The broadcast team questioned the call. 

Mbilli’s body language changed afterward, and in the ninth he stayed on the outside and found little success, even as analyst Sergio Mora said on the broadcast that he should fight on the inside. By the tenth, Mbilli needed a knockout and did not go looking for one. In the eleventh, he landed the same two shots to the body, then backed away, wary of the counter Alvarez kept firing back.

Mbilli finally let his hands go in the twelfth. He traded a good exchange with Alvarez, who waved him in and told him to come on and fight, and he followed with a flurry before backing off again. It was a strong finish for a fighter who refused to make it a physical fight for most of the night, and it was too late to change the scorecards.

“Difficult to explain this feeling,” Alvarez said afterward. “Unbelievable. This feels like my first title.” He pointed to his 21 years as a professional and said he won his first title 16 years ago and had now won it again. He thanked his trainer Eddy Reynoso and Reynoso’s father, Chepo, for making him who he is, and he thanked his family watching from afar. Asked about Reynoso’s instructions, Alvarez said they are always correct. “Use your jab and keep boxing and do what Canelo does,” he said. Two days earlier, Reynoso had said that everyone talks about it being him against the world, but that it is really Alvarez who steps into the ring.

Alvarez was blunt about Mbilli’s output. “He does not throw a lot of punches because it is difficult to throw punches with me,” he said.

The co-main event was a wild one. Jaime Munguia walked out to “El Rey” by Vicente Fernandez and won a unanimous decision over Nikita Zon to retain the WBA super middleweight title he won from Armando Resendiz in May, 116-112, 117-111 and 117-111. Zon, a southpaw who kept his lead hand low and used rough tactics early, rocked Munguia several times, and in the sixth round he hurt Munguia badly enough that referee Tony Weeks came close to stopping it. Munguia survived, nearly dropped Zon with a flurry of his own, and won every round the rest of the way on my card, working the body while Zon tired.

On the rest of the main card, Rafael Espinoza retained his WBO featherweight title when the fight against Ricardo Blandon was stopped in the third round because of a cut over Blandon’s left eyebrow, and Reito Tsutsumi knocked down Raymundo Rojas twice before the referee stopped their fight in the second round. The vacant IBF junior welterweight fight between Lindolfo Delgado and Arthur Biyarslanov did not take place after Robert Garcia pulled Delgado earlier in the week.

The week that included a hostile aerial threat alert in Riyadh ended with a champion getting his belt back. Alvarez said he will rest for a couple of weeks and keep working hard. He did not say who he wants next.